Okay. I don't mean to be a crank, but the only city I've seen these mid-term weeks was a little patch of canal overlooked by a Bushuis Library window. When it comes to library seating I'm extremely territorial. It is my seat; my table. Oh, and that lamp. Yes, that's mine too. The window and all that it overlooks...mine. It overlooks people in hats in cars on bikes smoking or on phones or both at once in the shadow of the bells of some old clock tower. Clock towers are nice no matter their age, and this one since I see it out my window is MINE! But enough on ownership and landmark pieces of time. I'd much rather talk about my favorite two euro snack in these days of hovering darkness (that is the week or so of getting those paper proposals into shape which somehow corresponds to the sun setting at 5:30pm -or is that 17:30 to you?) It is not the frites (those are 2.50 or not worth it), or kip sate, or (heaven forbid) a krokket or even those really tasty sandwiches made fresh with less than cordial hands at Spar grocery. I'm talking, in fact, about pizza, turkish pizza - turkse pizza - a very special pizza sort near and dear to my stomach, and maybe even my heart. Restaurant Turkyie in de Pijp (south on the Ferdinand Bolstraat), very near the west end of the Albert Cuypmarkt I get, almost weekly, a generous treat about the size of my forearm.

A light layer of sausage crumbles (vegetarians helaas! I once was one of you!!) and sharp sauce baked on a flatbread that functions, in this instance, like a tortilla. The oversize savory, as I taste it, is a blessed mix of pizza and burrito and thus two of the greatest culinary inventions at once. Order it with alles erop and receive the wrapping wrapped with another blessed mix of onions, tomatoes, lettuce, garlic sauce, sambal, and sometimes (if they're feeling really generous) green olives. I feel blessed when I eat this treat, and so should you! Oh, lord, how I wish I had stopped by there today I say as I creep to the kitchen and make another uninspired cheese and butter lunch.